Darfur student on hunger strike on Sudan Kober prison’s death row

Student Asim Omar, who has been sentenced to death in a case surrounded by controversy, has been on a hunger strike for the last three days after the administration in Khartoum’s notorious Kober prison issued a decision to shackle his hands and feet and deny him visitors.

A statement on Monday by the opposition Sudanese Congress Party (SCP) said Omar’s hunger strike is “in protest against the abuse and the injustice of the measures taken against him”.

Asim Omar who is from Darfur was held in May last year against the backdrop of student protests at his university. Later he was told that he was charged with killing a police officer during the protests. He was detained for more than 14 months in detention centres of Sudan’s security apparatus and Kober Prison in Khartoum North, before he was brought to trial.

Omar was convicted of murder on August 29 last year, which prompted hundreds of students and members of the Sudanese Congress Party (SCP) to demonstrate near the court against the death sentence. On December 5, the Court of Appeal in Khartoum upheld the death sentence.

Third day

The most recent stement by the SCP says that on his third day of hunger strike, Omar’s health has begun to deteriorate as the prison administration would not provide him with treatment.

The party held the regime responsible for any harm that might happen to Omar and the statement called on human rights organisations to raise their voice.